Author: Cindy Hsu

Description: You as a player have to log into the game to take your birth control pill every day on time within a 5 minute period. If you fail to do so, you will have a virtual pregnancy (the game will have a baby in a messy teenage room) and you can’t restart the game – can’t make mistakes.

Art/Research statement: I want to play around with real-time references in this game. It’s to show the importance of using contraceptives, specifically birth control pills, correctly. I wanted to make a game where the player can only make the same mistake once and has to stick with the consequences. Experimental and risk elements include the short duration of each game-play, the day-long wait before the next gameplay, and the risk of the player not bothering to play at all. My parameters for success would include recurring playthroughs – to have the player come back into the game for a least a few days in a row before they see the consequences of making the mistake of missing a pill.

References:

Robert Yang’s Rinse and Repeat and other games that make the player return to the game in real time references

Jason Rohrer’s Chainworld where each player can only fully experience the game once

Born to be Alive, a game where the player can learn to give birth to a child with virtual experiences(Non-games)

The paranoia I personally feel after not taking a pill on time

Michele Pred’s The Birth of Baby X

Title: Do not get caught

Description: You are in your room watching pornography . Your mom keeps coming into the room checking if you are studying or not. Your goal is to not get caught watching pornography. Whenever your mom comes in, you need to change your screen as quickly as possible by pressing complicated keys that changes every time (for instance shift + enter + G +tab all at the same time.)

I want to play with the idea of quickness and embarrassment. Sexual activities are something that people try to hide and keep to themselves. I want the audience to feel thrill and guilt from doing something that they are not supposed to do.

Jason Rohrer is an American programmer, writer, musician, and game designer. He publishes most of his software under GNU General Public License or into the public domain because he’s a supporter of a copyright-less free distribution economy. His games are said to be experiences that are like no other games anyone’s played before.

Sleep is Death

Sleep is Death is an adventure-game making software. It works with two players only – one as a creator and one as a player. The two players get to build their own adventure by responding to one another’s actions or conversations. This game is played in real time and the players can do, say, or make anything. Every time a story or scene is told, the assets are copied to the other’s library.

Sleep is Death is basically a sandbox for players to build and create their own adventure stories while responding to one another. The possibilities are endless.

Chain World

1. Run Chain World via one of the included “run_ChainWorld” launchers.
2. Start a single-player game and pick “Chain World”.
3. Play until you die exactly once.
3a. Erecting wooden signs with text is forbidden
3b. Suicide is permissible.
4. Immediately after dying and respawning, quit to the menu.
5. Allow the world to save.
6. Exit the game and wait for your launcher to automatically copy Chain World back to the USB stick.
7. Pass the USB stick to someone else who expresses interest.
8. Never discuss what you saw or did in Chain World with anyone.
9. Never play again.

Chain World is a game that was made so it could be a religion. There is only one copy of the game and it’s on a USB drive that is to be passed from one person to another after the player dies in the game. Each player during his lifetime in the game is the only one allowed to modify the world.

Rohrer passed the USB to a random audience member, Jia Ji, who later sold the game on eBay – imposing his own set of rules about who could play Chain World after the auction winner.

A Game For Someone

A Game for Someone was made for nobody existing now or in the near future. It’s a board game made out of materials that would last for a very long time and is buried somewhere in the Nevada desert. It was inspired by the theme of the GDC – “Humanity’s Last Game.”

Rohrer seems to enjoy focusing on a somewhat collaborative effort among the people of the world for his games. All of these games are more than the commercial and more common games.